NASA LIED! NASA Finally Revealed What Exactly Happened with Boeing Starliner

Starliner once hailed as a breakthrough in crude space flight now faces a potentially humiliating end after numerous issues and delays aboard the ISS the prospect of it being unable to undock and possibly returning without its crew looms large this situation has sparked significant debate leading NASA to recently provide critical updates on the cft1 crew Mission and future operations so what exactly did NASA reveal and how will these developments impact starlander dragon and the overall ISS Mission let's explore these updates on today's episode of great SpaceX in our previous episode we discussed NASA's potential plans to delay the crew 9 Mission due to ongoing Starliner issues at that time these updates were speculative but NASA has now officially confirmed the delay along with several other key updates NASA announced NASA and SpaceX are targeting no earlier than Tuesday September 24th for the launch of the agency's crew 9 mission to the International Space Station Steve Stitch NASA's commercial crew program manager further elaborated on the reasons behind the delay besides the rescheduling of crew 9 NASA has decided to make room for two Starliner astronauts by launching only two astronauts on the crew 9 Mission SpaceX space suits are reportedly ready for this change this move is something NASA had been hinting at for some time though they hadn't explicitly confirmed it it seems they may have been downplaying the severity of starliners issues now with the situation becoming untenable NASA has officially opted for a dragon based solution under this plan the two Starliner astronauts will remain on the ISS for over 8 months and return with crew 9 in February 2025 the identities of these two crew n astronauts have yet to be determined another backup solution being considered involves allowing three crew members to be positioned on The Crew 8 cargo pallet this contingency plan would be enacted if NASA needs to undock Starliner before crew 9 arrives such a scenario would be a significant setback for boing the inability to undock Starliner compounded by the failure to safely return the astronauts would be a major embarrassment especially if they had to rely on their competitor spacex's Dragon to bring those astronauts back to Earth this development would likely signal the end of Starliner if this situation comes to pass there are two possible outcomes in the first scenario if the Starliner issues are deemed too severe or if re-entry poses a high risk the spacecraft could be intentionally abandoned in space or allowed to burn up during re-entry into Earth's atmosphere in the second scenario if the problems are considered manageable Boeing and NASA might still attempt to bring Starliner home home the rationale for this could be to analyze the spacecraft's performance and issues for future reference it's important to note that the updates concerning dragon's involvement are currently just contingency plans and have not been formally enacted in other words dragon's rescue mode is not officially active yet NASA remains hopeful that starlander can resolve its issues within the next month in the best case scenario if these problems are addressed astronauts Butch and Sunni might still return aboard start liner potentially as early as August however this optimistic Outlook is clouded by doubts primarily due to the undocking software issues helium leaks and Thruster failures the crew 9 delay proposal further adds to these concerns the agency explained that the delay allows Starliner more time to evaluate recent test results and complete other necessary work one of the latest issues revealed is a problem with the undocking software on Starliner the current software is reportedly unable to facilitate the undocking of the Boeing spacecraft from the ISS this Revelation is concerning previously it was known that Starliner was plagued by issues like helium leaks and Thruster failures now with this new undocking software problem confirmed the situation appears even more daunting Boeing's technology is currently facing significant challenges the ability to interact effectively with the ISS has been problematic for Starliner back in 2019 the Starliner prototype failed to Rendevous and connect with the ISS now even after successfully docking the spacecraft is unable to undock this is a fundamental flaw especially for a vehicle intended to carry humans into space docking and undocking are basic requirements for any spacecraft and if starlander struggles with these steps one has to wonder how it will handle more complex tasks it's estimated that it will take Boeing about a month to update the undocking software which is one of the reasons for the delay of dragon this software update is intended to allow Starliner to undock automatically while it's common for spacecraft to have both manual and automatic modes the need to update the automatic undocking software raises another concern the possibility that Starliner might return without crew members given these developments the likelihood that the two Starliner astronauts will end up returning on Dragon seems increasingly plausible despite all these issues it would be easy to assume that this could spell the end for Boeing's Starliner program however NASA appears committed to continuing this costly project in the recent update NASA revealed a surprising decision regarding Starliner even if the spacecraft fails to bring astronauts back from the current Mission it will still be certified for Future Crew launches this decision might seem puzzling especially given the current issues Starliner is facing but it appears that NASA has its reasons one possible reason is that NASA doesn't doesn't want the problems with this crew test to derail the overall Starliner road map in the commercial crew program most recently the Starliner One mission has been delayed until the second half of 2025 given that Starliner has only 6 years left to complete its six planned missions NASA likely wants to ensure that these missions proceed as scheduled to avoid wasting the significant investment already made in Boeing this decision may also be influenced by Boeing's current situation if additional crew tests were required Boeing would face a significant challenge with its prototypes currently Boeing only has two Starliner prototypes the one being used on the current Mission named Calypso and the second prototype which was used to successfully launch the of2 mission in 2022 and is slated for the Starliner 1 Mission if a new crew test were required the current Calypso prototype would likely be deemed unsuitable for another attempt meaning Boeing would have to rely on the Starliner one prototype however even if this Mission were successful Boeing would be left without a prototype for the subsequent Starliner One mission this situation puts Boeing in a difficult position and likely influenced NASA's decision to continue with the program despite the current setbacks in that case Boeing and NASA will have to delay the Starliner One mission we can't predict by how much it will be delayed but let's assume that Starliner 1 is only delayed until until 2026 we can see that it will cause a big problem for Boeing as well the delay will cause Boeing to fly two missions in several years with the current capabilities I think that's impossible for them another reason for NASA's decision to certify Starliner despite its problems could be the potential impact on other vehicles the US module on the ISS has a limited number of docking ports and the ongoing issues with the Starliner cft1 Mission have already caused delays pushing back the schedule for crew 9 this decision could be seen as one of NASA's worst in recent years approving a launch license for a spacecraft with multiple delays unresolved issues and an inability to bring astronauts back safely poses a significant future risk if I were an astronaut I would hesitate to board such a spacecraft nevertheless the decision has been made and it seems Starliner will continue to be part of NASA's plans however this could have serious consequences for NASA the commercial crew program could be in Jeopardy dragon has maintained a perfect success rate for years ensuring the smooth operation of the ISS in contrast relying on a problematic spacecraft like Starliner could disrupt operations delay crew rotations and lead to insufficient Food Supplies on the ISS this would put the ISS at a disadvantage compared to competitors like China's Tong gong space station as for Boeing the impact goes beyond reliability and scheduling issues the company is facing significant financial cial challenges recently Boeing reported another loss of $125 million us bringing their total losses on the Starliner program to $1.6 billion this is a staggering amount for a single spacecraft project especially considering that Boeing received $4.5 billion dollar from NASA in 2014 to develop Starliner more than SpaceX received for Dragon yet Des despite this funding Boeing has only managed to produce two Starliner prototypes both of which have faced numerous issues in contrast SpaceX has four dragon prototypes all of which have performed successfully looking further into the future if Boeing stubbornly maintains the Starliner project they may face yet another significant challenge beyond the losses tied to ongoing delays Boeing will likely need to create one or even several new prototypes this would incur additional massive expenses for the company potentially driving their losses to unimaginable levels regardless of the outcome of the next Mission the future of Starliner appears increasingly Bleak the spacecraft which once aspired to reach Great Heights now struggles to even leave its current position the possibility of Starliner returning without astronauts on board seems ever more likely Starliner may have one more chance and we have one more month to wait and see what its fate will be meanwhile spacex's dragon is poised to potentially step in once again as NASA's savior further solidifying spacex's dominant position in the space industry 1 month remains let's wait and see what unfolds well folks that's about it for today's episode thank you so much for tuning in and as always this has been Kevin from great SpaceX until next time keep looking up